I have just released a new version of YouTube5, which I’ve had in a half-completed state for several months now but never had time to polish up and release. The biggest change in this version is that the player is no longer embedded in an iFrame, so it lives directly in the top level page. The main advantages of this change are simplicity and reliability. Previously there were issues with videos on YouTube channel pages continuing to play in the background after a new video was loaded, probably because Safari did not properly garbage collect the contents of the iFrame once it was no longer part of the page.

Technical details aside, this update should improve compatibility with several sites and other extensions. In particular, YouTube5 now properly integrates with clea.nr (formerly A Cleaner YouTube). It should also cooperate with videos in lightboxes and popups better. I’ve also discovered that it fixes videos in private browsing mode.

However, moving the player directly into the page has one downside: it is now affected by the site’s CSS styling. I have tried to minimize any problems that could result from this by using a reset stylesheet on all the elements inside the player, but there may still be problems with some websites. If you encounter any, please let me know and I will try to fix them.

The only other change in this version is the addition of an overlay that displays the video title and author before it is played, similar to what the default YouTube and Vimeo players already do.